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The SMART Group Ireland Industry Awards 1999

The SMART Group Ireland Industry
Awards 1999

Keywords: SMART, Awards

Two excellent pieces of research were rewarded by the SMART Group at the
Nepcon Ireland show (Plate 1). One project resulted in savings estimated at $1.3
million per year. The other focused on the topical subject of lead-free,
replacing lead based solder in surface finishing of devices.

Paul Dennehy was recently promoted to senior manufacturing engineer in
recognition of his work on this project and his prize from SMART was a trip to
Nepcon-West in Anaheim, California. This includes return air ticket, hire car,
hotel and £500 spending money.

Paul recommended a significant process change to an assembly section of the
surface mount line, achieving major cost and headcount reduction with an
increase in productivity.

The main change to the process was moving from vacuum transfer, using solder
preforms, to a pin transfer system using solder paste. Increased yields, with a
reduction in equipment and facility requirements, were also achieved.

The changes have been implemented at Paul's company General Semiconductor
Ireland, with annual savings estimated at $1.3 million.

Mary Russell, a process engineer specialising in plating, won the SMART
Student of the Year Award and a cheque for £500 for her "Study to determine a
suitable replacement for lead based solder for surface finishing of devices".
This work was part time for a Master's course at the NMRC, University College
Cork.

Mary evaluated lead-free finishes for component terminations including Sn/Bi,
Sn/Cu, 100% Sn, Au, OSP, Ag, Sn/Pb. These were re-flowed with three binary alloy
attachment pastes - Sn/Ag, Sn/Cu and Sn/Pb. Au on Ni on Cu was used as a
lead-free finish on the boards. Taguchi methods for design of experiments were
used to obtain optimum plating and reflow conditions. Visual inspection, shear
tests, electrical testing, reliability testing and metallurgical analysis was
used. The results of this work show that 100 percent tin or gold produced
reliable lead-free component finishes from a cost, processing, manufacturing and
reliability aspect. Mary's company are fully aware of the possible pending
lead-free legislation and further work is ongoing.

The SMART Group Awards are presented annually, the object being to encourage
the participation of industry and education, recognising exceptional work by
students, whilst also raising the awareness of the group.